Clockwise from top left: Mariska Hargitay's My Mom Jayne, Mstyslav Chernov's 2000 Meters to Andriivka, Raoul Peck's Orwell: 2+2=5, Petra Costa's Apocalypse in the Tropics, Gabe Polsky's The Man Who Saves the World? and Laura Poitras' Cover-Up Courtesy of HBO; Mstyslav Chernov; Gabe Polsky Productions; Courtesy of Neon; Courtesy of Netflix The directors of six of this year's standout nonfiction films gathered for The Hollywood Reporter's Documentary Roundtable in mid- November to reflect on the challenges and rewards of their work. The group comprised Oscar winners Laura Poitras (Netflix's Cover-Up, a portrait of investigative journalist Seymour "Sy" Hersh) and Mstyslav Chernov (PBS' 2000 Meters to Andriivka, which follows a Ukrainian platoon as it fights to reclaim a Russian-held village); Oscar nominees Petra Costa (Netflix's Apocalypse in the Tropics, examining the rise of Christian nationalism in Brazil) and Raoul Peck (Neon's Orwell: 2+2=5, exploring George Orwell's enduring relevance); and Gabe Polsky (Area 23a's The Man Who Saves the World?, about Patrick McCollum, an American convinced he's destined to fulfill an ancient prophecy) and Mariska Hargitay (HBO's My Mom Jayne, a study of the filmmaker's late movie-star mother, Jayne Mansfield). While they took very different paths to these films, it turns out they have arrived at many of the same concerns about the future of nonfiction filmmaking. Related Stories Movies 'KPop Demon Hunters' Snags Three Golden Globe Nominations -- Including One Surprising Nod Business Netflix's Biggest Wall Street Backer Downgrades It on Fear That Warner Deal Exposes Weakness to YouTube and TikTok Threat Before we talk about your 2025 documentaries, let's discuss how you wound up making docs in the first place. RAOUL PECK Coming from Haiti, film, and documentary in particular, was something I started doing because I felt I had no choice. It was so people like me, from the Third World, could have a voice in the state of the world. LAURA POITRAS I was always a big watcher of cinema, but I thought it was something you needed a big orchestra to do. Then I took a summer class at the San Francisco Art Institute, which was known for experimental avant-garde cinema. They gave me a camera, and I fell in love. I collaborated on a [2003] film with a great artist, Linda Goode Bryant, called Flag Wars, and that was when I learned about doing portraits of people and how, through those portraits, you can make a larger critique of society. MSTYSLAV CHERNOV I was a sailor for five years. Then I went back to Ukraine to be a journalist and a photographer. Then the [2014] Maidan Revolution started, and we were all forced to become war photographers, videographers and writers. Years later, [the 2022 siege of] Mariupol happened, and by that time I wanted to be a filmmaker. I said to my editors, "Look, I can't make journalism about it right now. I need to make a film." And it all started there. [Chernov won the best doc feature Oscar for 2023's 20 Days in Mariupol.] PETRA COSTA [After making a few very personal docs,] I happened to watch Patricio Guzmán's [1970s doc] The Battle of Chile and had kind of envy, like, "Oh, I wish I had lived through such a historic moment and was able to document it." Then three months later, Brazil started having the same kind of political upheaval with a parliamentary coup against the first female president [Dilma Rousseff], so I started documenting that [in 2019's The Edge of Democracy, which was nominated for the best doc feature Oscar] and have been in that rabbit hole for the past 10 years. GABE POLSKY I was a hockey player. When that ended after college, I didn't know what I wanted to do. I had a roommate who was doing a lot of sketch comedy and writing, and that inspired me. I realized I enjoy connecting with audiences and changing how people think. I considered journalism and then filmmaking. I started off producing but realized it's too indirect; you're serving someone else's vision. I needed to be more hands-on and had things to express myself. So the only thing to do was to try to do it myself. MARISKA HARGITAY I've had the good fortune of working on [NBC's Law & Order] SVU for 27 years and constantly having the power of storytelling affirmed. Because the show deals with sexual assault, it was a life-changing job, in that I started as an actor who wanted to express myself, and then, when I learned about the prevalence of sexual assault and domestic violence and child abuse by doing research for my character, I couldn't believe the statistics. I couldn't believe that everybody wasn't talking about this. I also learned through the show the healing power for people of having their story told - it made them feel in community and not alone. In 2009, I learned from Human Rights Watch about the backlog of untested rape kits. I was trying to think of the most powerful way to share this news, and for me, it was through film. When I produced [the 2017 HBO doc] I A